The Black Keys Turn Back the Clock With a Set of Raw Hill Country Blues at Mohawk

Left-right: Patrick Carney, Eric Deaton, Kenny Brown, Dan Auerbach (Photo by David Brendan Hall)

In the early days of the Black Keys, circa The Big Come Up and Thickfreakness, their name was rarely uttered without mention of R.L. Burnside and Junior Kimbrough.

That strain of trance-inducing, electric hill country blues from North Mississippi was foundational to the young Ohio duo, who would eventually become hit-makers and stadium-tourers but never stopped promoting the progenitors of this raw American roots music.

With a Thursday night underplay at Mohawk, Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney turned back the clock with a set of juke joint blues – fittingly retrospective for a South by Southwest appearance centered around the premiere of Jeff Dupre’s marquee rock doc This Is a Film About the Black Keys. The showcase of Auerbach’s Easy Eye Sound label, which included a showstopping set by elder statesman Robert Finley, was promoted as the Keys playing songs from 2021’s throwback Delta Kream.

But the intimate show proved to be more than a discographical play-through. They were joined by veteran guitarist Kenny Brown and bassist Eric Deaton, who’d both played with Burnside and Kimbrough as well as their extended musical families. Auerbach frequently deferred to Brown for potent slide guitar soloing, including on “Busted,” a track from the Black Keys debut LP that used elements of Burnside’s classic “Skinny Woman.”

It was until 20 minutes into the show, over the Carney-led thump of “Coal Black Mattie” and a cover of Kimbrough’s “Stay All Night” that Auerbach really started going deep in his bag to burn it down on some extended guitar solos. If there was any concern that a crowd wouldn’t remain engaged in a set that included none of the band’s hits, that proved no real fuss. The capacity crowd was zoned in as the band lit into a gorgeous cover of “Where There’s Smoke There’s Fire” by obscure Dallas soul artist Willie Griffin, welcomed Alejandro and Estevan Gutiérrez from Easy Eye roster-mates Hermanos Gutiérrez, and closed it down with a coruscating take on “Heard It Through the Grapevine.”

Even as the music festival’s most famous band playing on Thursday, the Black Keys 70-plus minute set gave SXSW attendees something much deeper than a mere promotional appearance or club-sized underplay.

Photo by David Brendan Hall